Daughter of Artemis: Fire and Ice

Daughter of Artemis 8*

Media: Artemis
<>Chapter 8<>

I woke up with a cold chill. I slowly lifted my head up, picking a stick off my arm. Yawning, I stood and stretched to relieve my joints of their tenseness. The fire was barely burning now, a thin fog covering the ground. Beside me, the group was sleeping soundly. The only noise heard was the occasional morning dove and Tyson's snores. There was no wind, yet the air was extremely cold. My t-shirt didn't exactly help. I stalked over tiredly and started poking the fire, trying to see if there was any flame left. When I found none, I gave up and sat down. After a moment of silence, a low humming sounded. Gradually, this seemed more and more like another dream.

'Tis not a dream, Sylvia. Hurry.

I gasped, reaching up to my head. I held it in my hands, familiarizing the voice as my mother's from my dream. The voice was my mother's the whole time? Why hadn't I. . . oh, yeah. The dream was just yesterday. But that means I could have some type of communication with her. I tried sending something back, but it looked like it was a one-way trip.

I rubbed my arms, trying to warm up with nothing to do. Standing back up and wandering around for a bit, I collected a bundle of sticks and dry leaves and threw them into the fire when I returned. Blowing on it, it burned just a little brighter and warmer. I looked around to find everyone still asleep. I wonder what time it is. . .

I glanced down at my wrist but I'm not wearing my watch. Perfect. Either I lost it, or I just completely forgot it. Hopefully the latter. Just then my stomach growled. I only just noticed how hungry I was. Might as well find something to eat. Rummaging through my backpack, I grabbed two granola bars and a water bottle. Returning to the somewhat warm fire, I nibbled on one, eventually putting the other snack bar back. I had to conserve food for later.

I sat up straighter as I heard footsteps. I gripped my bow beside me tightly. "Hey."

"Oh, just you," I said relaxing. It was only Annabeth.

"What's up?" She asked, sitting down across from me.

"The sky."

"I thought we agreed to maintain peace?" I laugh a little.

"It was a joke," I say, shooting a glance at Annabeth. It was silent for a while.

"I'm surprised you want to be something like friends with me after how mean I was. And, for your information, I'm sorry. You and Percy seemed to hit it off really well and I, as pathetic as it sounds, got really jealous," she admitted. I tilted my head back and laughed.

"Don't worry; he's all yours. I think of Percy as a brother Annabeth, even with the short amount of time I've spent with him. And I think he thinks of me as a little sister. Nothing to worry about." I laugh a little more and she smiles. Maybe this won't be too bad. I guess it's understandable. Surprisingly, he and others did accept me really quickly. It's probably natural instinct to feel that way.

Finally, the sun shone through the leaves of the treetops so Annabeth and I went to get everybody up. Each grabbed something to eat and it remained a silent morning.

"Oh, hey, guess what everyone?" I remember happily as we gather our things to start walking again.

"What?"

"The voice is so much better now. It doesn't hurt anymore and it's no longer incoherent," I tell them with a grin.

"How do you know?" Clarisse asked.

"Well, earlier, I believe Artemis talked to me. She was saying we need to hurry up. She probably meant to get her as fast as possible," I say focusing on the path ahead of me as thunder rumbled above, even though there wasn't a cloud in sight.

"We'll get there," Annabeth says with a confident smile as she placed her hand on my shoulder. The gesture made me flinch away, earning me weird looks from everyone. Especially from Connor. He was probably remembering the time I flinched away from him when we first met.

"Yeah, we'll help all the way through," Travis said, breaking the awkward silence.

"Thanks guys. You're the best."

"Well now, let's get a move on," Percy says, throwing his bag over his shoulder.

Annabeth jumps on his back and yells, "Onward trusty steed!" Percy runs ahead of us, in which we all laugh. Everyone chases after them but Grover stays behind with me.

"I see you and Annabeth are okay now?" he asks.

"Yeah, I think so," I nod.

"That's good. So where are we headed now?" he asked.

"Wherever the entrance to the underworld is," I state.

"Hollywood."

"Then we're off to Hollywood!" I yell, which in return I get a whole bunch of cheering.

We continued moving forward until the late afternoon where we took a short break. I sat down in the grass and took a gulp of water. Trying to save as much water as possible, I stored it away. As we sat there everyone had their own, little conversations.

With no one to talk to as seeming that everyone was engaged in something else, I unclipped the necklace and twirled the charm between my fingers. Feeling some nostalgia, I sighed heavily. Silently praying that my dad was okay, I put it back on and got moving again. The group was pretty quiet except for the occasional chattering.

We traveled all day, stopping sometime in the late evening just as the moon started to become a cresent in the sky. It was a nice, natural day for the lives of six demigods, one satyr, and one cyclops. Not did any of us know, it'd be one of the few normal days we'd ever get for a while.
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Sorry I haven't updated for a while. I got grounded from electronics cuz I hit my brother. :/ okay well hoped you enjoyed it. Sorry they're so short, I'm trying to get better at it :3

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